Filled and imitation cheese products using a vegetable fat in place of butterfat are well-known. Several major factors have influenced their greater acceptance. For one, a vegetable fat is less expensive than its butterfat counterpart. Another factor has been technical improvements in the filled and imitation products and components employed in their manufacture. For instance, functional lipid systems capable of meeting almost any specification are now available.
A truly imitation cheese offers several further advantages over a filled product. Its manufacture avoids the need for maintaining acid-producing micro-organisms conventionally employed in the cheese-making process. Also avoided are the formation of whey as a by-product and the accompanying need for separation and disposal of the same. In addition, the process for the production of an imitation cheese can be semi-continuous whereas processes for production of natural and filled cheeses of necessity are carried out on a batch basis.
From a nutritional point of view, the filled and imitation products are at least of the same quality as their corresponding natural products.
Whereas a large number of filled cheese products exist on the market today, those truly imitation cheese products which have been developed have been more in the nature of soft cheeses, imitation sour creams or sour cream whips, cream cheeses and cottage cheeses. One such product is described in the Elenbogen U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,995 and is characterized as a cream cheese spread. In this patent, lactic acid is incorporated directly into a composition comprising about 15 to 40 percent by weight fat having a ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fats in the range of about 3:1 to about 9:1, the composition also having about 5 to 13% of a phosphoprotein solid, such as an alkali caseinate, and an amount of a stabilizing vegetable gum the remainder being water.
With regard to mozzarella cheese and other harder cheeses, those new products which have been developed can be more readily categorized as filled cheeses. Prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,354 to Kasik et al describes an elastic cheese product which is useful as a substitute for mozzarella cheese prepared from an aqueous dispersion comprising 1 to 15% sodium caseinate and up to 30% butterfat. The fat/sodium caseinate mixture is innoculated with a starter and then is further innoculated with micrococci and allowed to ferment aerobically until the system becomes elastic and plastic in consistency. Acidification then takes place to coagulate the product, the acidification being to a pH of about 5.2 to about 3.2.
The product of the patent is not a true imitation product, and is unduly expensive because of the large amount of butterfat employed. The product also suffers from the disadvantages normally associated with processing of a natural product.
A product on the market is indicated to be an imitation mozzarella cheese. It is stated to have a hydrogenated vegetable oil, an amount of calcium caseinate, salts, adipic acid and other ingredients. The method of manufacture of the product is not known. It has many of the desirable characteristics of mozzarella cheese, for instance good browning characteristics, but does not have the traditional stretch property which so uniquely characterizes mozzarella cheese.
In this regard, mozzarella cheese is a different cheese. It can be characterized as a fresh, high moisture cheese having a relatively bland flavor. The cheese is rubbery in nature, that is, provided with a high degree of stretch, is hard so that it can be grated into flakes, and browns when cooked. It is frequently combined with other foods, for instance, tomato sauce in the preparation of pizza, and in this regard should have good melt-down characteristics providing a continuous fused layer when baked. Further, the cheese should be firm, versus soft, and smooth in texture.
For purposes of the present application, all percentages are weight percentages, based on the weight of the entire formulation, and temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit, unless otherwise indicated.